In Retrospect, A Perspective: Is Driving A Cab Averaging 5000 Miles Per Month Reasonable Or Sane

Too Many Miles

My rationale for additional blog missives is a winding down of an experience encompassing over 36 years of my life, from the ages 33 to 69.  While yes, many of my taxi years were only part-time or confined to long weekends, taxi still dominated my psyche, with most identifying me as a cabbie and little else, which explains why it remains intact in my overall consciousness.  

Am I glad I gave so much time to taxi?  No, not at all, viewing it as a regrettable waste of my time and life.  And how does driving over 5000 miles per month in sometimes heavy and irritating Seattle and King County traffic making any sense whatsoever?  

For comparison, by hopping on I-90, you can drive its full length of 3,000, 030.2 miles taking you all the way to Boston.  Coming back, another 2000 miles driving west will have you entering the great state of Montana.  Folks, that's the equivalent of what I did every month for years on end.  At least on I-90 it is a straight shot, with no stop signs.  In Seattle it was up and down the hills in often dense traffic while avoiding even denser drivers.   

It was an insane experience.  Add the too often dumbbell passengers and there you have the ultimate deranged world that is taxi.  While yes, the money was good but if I had been wiser and gotten the required papers, getting my MA and PHD, as a licensed Clinical Psychologist I would have been charging $100-200.00 per hour.  

As a cabbie, I have sometimes averaged $100.00 an hour and, brothers and sisters, it adds up quickly.  Instead, I could have sat in a cozy office, books and artwork on the walls, Mozart wafting through the air, making real money while at the same time actually assisting people who required serious interventions.  

Instead, I very efficiently plied the streets, getting folks on time to their flights when it seemed to be an impossibility.  30% of everything I made came by way of tips.   People liked my driving, impressed with my skills.  But was it a complete waste of my time and talent?  Undeniably, it was.

A Real Business Opportunity: A Tri-City Taxi Cab Company Comprising the New Mexico Cities Of Las Cruces, Deming And Silver City

A Kind of Advertisement

I am writing this as a public service for the good people living in this part of Southwest New Mexico who need and want alternative forms of transportation.  Perhaps there is ample TNC (Uber/Lyft) coverage in Las Cruces, a city of over 113,000 residents but not in Deming, population 15,000, and Silver City, just under 10,000 folks.  

Las Cruces no longer has a cab company, which makes it a logical choice to base a company serving all three cities.  El Paso, Texas, population over 677,000, and its major airport, is only 46 miles away on I-10.  With proper promotion and advertising, I could envision a lucrative business running folks to the airport from Las Cruces and the other towns.  

How many cabs would one want to begin with?  I suggest a minimum of 10, initially basing 6 cabs in Las Cruces, and 2 each in Deming and Silver City.  For such a small company, radio-based dispatch would be adequate but making sure you have 24-dispatch coverage, if nothing else to take early morning time calls.  

As to rates, they must be competitive with Uber while covering insurance costs.  What do I think the initial cost of investment would be for 10 new cars (don't be cheap), insurance and setting up dispatch?  A minimum of $500.000.  How would the drivers get paid?  I would suggest starting off with an hourly salary plus 25% of fares in additional to any tips that the drivers would keep in total for themselves.  

Again, with proper promotion, I think anyone would recoup their initial investment within one year.  A General Manager would be necessary, someone also serving as Cab Superintendent and Day-Time dispatcher.   I think the possibilities for success are unlimited.  My only warning is that this kind of venture is not for rookies unfamiliar with the taxicab industry.  Savvy cab veterans need only dip their toes in this kind of market.  If I won the lottery I would finance it but not run it.  Anyone but me.  

Poem Concerning The Mimbres River & Anyone Want To Start A Cab Service in Silver City, NM?

 Walking to the Rio Mimbres After a Fast, Heavy Rain---7:21 PM on a July Evening

That light!---a sunny glow illuminating bright green a leafy post-cloud burst canopy---leaves and branches damp along the path brushing my shoulders.  

A shallow reach takes me across into more woods when, suddenly ahead, a surprise in the bushy clearing---"Who is that looking at me?"---a large elk, then more, a family, perhaps thirty to forty calves, adults, their dinner now interrupted racing, fleeing west.

Now alone but not---moist grassy scents filling nose and lungs, eyes and brain relieved, caressed by emotions minus any and all necessary thinking and talking.   

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For anyone wondering what I am doing and are doing, here is an answer.  Where I am is the Mimbres River valley surrounded by high desert hills and mountains still verdant in the piercing, nearing mid-July sunshine. 

Taxi Opportunity in Silver City, New Mexico?  Not for Me but Perhaps for You

The local librarian, when finding out that I had driven cab, responded, in an almost pleading tone, 'We need taxis in Silver City."  She didn't know about the lone Uber/Lyft driver I had mentioned months ago.  Its clear some kind of local and reliable transportation would be helpful in a city of nearly 10,000 occupants.  I know nothing about local regulations or what insurance might cost.  The town has Western New Mexico University and is a tourist destination.  Housing especially is much cheaper than Seattle.  I could see how it would work.  Two cabs would be workable.  But not me, no, not me.  Maybe for you to venture in the sunny and hot New Mexico blue.